Wealth Solutions Report
Expert Views On Wealth Management M&A, A $1.8 Billion Acquisition, The Client’s Largest Asset Isn’t What You Think, Working With CPAs And Our Weekly Recruitment Roundup
To My Fellow WSR Community Members:
Many things about our industry give me pride, but sometimes the facts are simply astounding. M&A activity in wealth management continues at a record-setting pace while many other industries saw a tremendous slowdown this year – a testament to the value found in our industry’s firms and businesses.
But nothing lasts forever, and the weight of bear markets, Federal Reserve hawkishness and other disruptions are beginning to form stress fractures on the M&A rocket ship. As an industry, we want to understand how the landscape will evolve in 2023 and beyond, and at WSR, we’ve contributed to that conversation in recent weeks.
This week, we bring you more coverage and analysis on the current state of wealth management M&A, including our weekly roundup of the latest recruiting news, a $1.8 billion acquisition by a growth-driven family office and an expert analysis of M&A trends.
In addition, we bring you food for thought on whether advisors should forge partnerships with CPAs and how to proactively address business sales for business owner clients.
This Week’s Issue
Here’s what we have on tap this week:
- Which middle market banks are innovating to attract advisors? In Newsmakers & Roundups, this edition of Weekly Recruitments answers the question by looking at Oppenheimer & Co. expanding its Nashville presence with the recruitment of Meridian Wealth Group, and Fifth Third Bank launching Fifth Third Wealth Advisors to recruit teams with over $1 billion in assets. We also cover OneDigital acquiring the retirement plan and employee benefits specialists JFL Total Wealth Management in New Jersey.
- Should advisors partner with CPAs? Following his recent publication of a book on the subject, Paul Saganey, President and Founder of Integrated Partners, discusses the benefits for advisors and their clients to CPA partnerships, and the reasons why some advisors are reluctant, in our Upmarket section.
- What if your client’s largest asset isn’t their house? Then it’s probably their business. Also in Upmarket, Tony Leonard, Vice President atMidCap Advisors, makes the case that advisors should proactively serve business owner clients on the sale of their business, and gives tax, process and communications strategies advisors can use.
- Where is the convergence of technology and asset management going next? In Digital Domain, we cover the software-as-a-service (SaaS) e-commerce workstation provider FusionIQ rolling out of its new turnkey asset management platform for wealth managers, called finTAMP. The white-label solution provides digital account opening, workflows, a model marketplace as well as a portal for advisors and portfolio managers.
In case you missed it, last week we brought you expert views on the current state of wealth management M&A and covered a $1.8 billion acquisition:
- Is the M&A landscape for independent wealth management firms finally cooling down after years of blazing hot growth, and if so why is that happening? Depends on where you look, and whom you ask. In our Capital Connections section, Paul Lally of Wipfli and Derek Bruton of Gladstone Group weighed in on how RIAs can navigate the M&A landscape despite the prospects of recession and falling valuations.
- Who’s just getting started with acquisitions? Also in Newsmakers & Roundups, Choreo announced it will acquire Enso Wealth Management, with six offices in California and Nevada and $1.8 billion in assets, significantly increasing the regional footprint for Parthenon-backed Choreo and boosting its assets to approximately $13.5 billion. The acquisition is the first of several deals in the firm’s pipeline for the coming months.
Tell us about your experiences and thoughts on the M&A market, send us your questions and share your ideas with us.
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Have a great week!
Cheers!
Larry Roth, CEO
Wealth Solutions Report
